I just picked this up and I am pleasantly surprised with the depth and quantity of material provided with the maps to use in my 1st edition adventuring. The publishers key is built in a way that the GM can see at a glance the specifics of a trap or door. The publisher has gone to great depth to provided samples to showcase exactly what one is buying. I gave it a good review, because it is exactly as advertised.

While these maps are not done in a photo realistic manner, if they were the DM would loose the management tools provided in the map keys. I for one look forward to seeing how these are received in my gaming group.

This product was a disappointment. I all honesty I could have made better maps with MS Windows Paint program. The maps are highly pixelated & the fonts look like old MS-DOS system font (on a 16 color monitor). With just a bit of effort these maps could have been so much better. A cleaner font, higher resolution images, etc. I am just very thankful all I am out is the $7.50 sale price. I would never have paid $30.00 (the non-sale list price at the time of my purchase) for this poor a product. I will NOT buy from this seller again. Like the old saying goes: fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Rating:

[1 of 5 Stars!]

Publisher Reply:

The maps are as described (old school) and can easily be previewed at full size. ( As any normal person might do if they are about to spend money on such a product.) Yes these map do show pixels, by design. Each pixel means something. Delete a pixel and you change the thickness of a wall, change they type of lock or trap, remove a secret door, etc.. (The pixel level detail is copyrighted by Stainless Steel Dragon Games for a good reason, and by design.) If you were to try to make these maps in MS Paint, it would take you months if not years to create them. (What is your time worth?) I urge all potential buyers to look at the samples and/or read less bias reviews by other people who can appreciate the details in these maps, and who probably don\'t work for a rival map making company.

A very large and versatile old school map set at a reasonable price. When I say old school, I don’t mean the basic blue & white square grid copier unfriendly maps like TSR once made. Comparing SSD maps to those maps would be like comparing a 1965 Ford Thunderbird with the Ford Model T. They are both old school, but each is in its own league. To give a typical example of the difference. Back in the day, secret doors were often denoted as a line or rectangle with an “S,” going through. SSD takes black & white mapping detail to whole new level where truly every pixel matters. A secret door that is 4” thick is depicted by a 1 pixel thick line, having only one dot on the side of the door that is not secret. The secret side of the door appears only as a flat line. A dot (door knob) on both sides of the door indicated a normal door. Two dots indicate a door that is locked, three dots double/heavily locked. A box around a doorknob indicates door is trapped, and doors that are locked and barred show deadbolts. SSD also includes such small details as secret compartments in walls hiding levers for traps, torches on walls, and everything an exploring party might typically see, such as chairs, beds, chests, stoves, stairs, statues etc… (As well things they might not see such as elaborate traps.) All maps used standardized symbols, so it well worth the time it takes to learn the legend/dungeon key. Most symbols are user intuitive, but minor details (like with locks) are somewhat encoded using pixel level details. The second important aspect I noticed about these maps was the vast diversity and purpose of each map. From simple bear caves to impregnable fortresses to mad wizards mazes and everything in between. I am forced to agree with the previous featured critic that they are “All fairly well thought out.” A few interesting places I noted in passing include a serious old school (Think cover of D&D v1 player manual) orc lair with a giant talking statue. A fortress built upon a volcano with vents to unleash lava upon attackers. (Think Fire & Ice.) A huge underground Dwarven complex. (Think Tolkien’s mines of Moria). A temple/lair tunneled out to look like a giant spider, with a huge spider statue in the center of it. (Perfect for a Drow/Loth adventure.) Also I liked the well of souls, the temple of time, and a mega vault capable of defending itself against even the most powerful/determined thieves/monsters. Beyond these, there is a variety of other interesting places to numerous to mention in the space of this review. Suffice it to say, just about anywhere you can imagine going this map set has a complete dungeon map ready and waiting for you. This brings me to third point I should make about his map set. All the dungeons, all the castles, all the temples have their location denoted on the DM’s regional map. (Player’s map does not show dungeons or small/hidden cities.) Individually these dungeons are nice, but together, by sheer number and scope, they create one of the largest campaign worlds I have ever seen. (Perhaps as big or bigger than the “World of GreyHawk” or “Forgotten Realms.” Remember we are talking dozens of castles, hence dozen of kingdoms, and about 1,000,000 square mile regional map. Not just names or dots on a map, but concrete structures with detailed floor-plans of their own. The final thing I would like to note about this collection of maps is that the PDF file is well book-marked so it is easy to navigate and permission is given to add notes, (Monsters, treasure, and trap notes) directly to the PDF file so it makes running a dungeon from my laptop a breeze. The detailed B&W maps appear to be saved as two color bitmaps allowing the maps to be printed in their original format so every pixel is crisp and easy to see. (I also like the way the PDF is setup so I can place sticky notes for monsters, treasure and traps wherever I like.) The color regional map is a jpeg and somewhat less sharp, but still a nice poster size wall hanging, and useful navigational tool. (It clearly shows features as detailed as roads, bridge crossings, and waterfalls.) I would recommend this product to anyone looking to build a huge campaign world. Or to any DM who wants to have a vast assortment of castles and dungeon maps at their command. This set has “years” worth of dungeons and cities to explore and is well worth its price tag when compared to like quality products

This is a very simple product. It's maps. And they're fairly well thought-out.

I don't notice any glaring issues, however, I should note that these maps are extremely retro-styled. I don't mind it, but if you're used to fancy pants stuff, this may not be your cup of tea.

The only gripe: .jpg's get more and more lossy the more you save 'em, and it's obvious on the colored world maps.

Rating:

[4 of 5 Stars!]

Publisher Reply:

As mentioned in description these are old school maps. Do view them for yourself to see if they are right for you. SSD is now making much higher quality maps, hence we are offering some of are older work in this "value" pack, (See Moon Dragon Inn for examples of our newer maps.)
The B&W detailed dungeon/castle maps were inserted into PDF as 2 color bitmaps. (So they are as crisp as possible for this format/medium.) In contrast, the color regional maps were converted "once" from a digitally remastered bitmaps into a JPEG and should print out as you see them in the preview. What this reviewer refers to as multiple over saves of JPG is actually a result of the remastering process. (This map was enlarged to 4 times its original size.)
“Everything” was redrawn at bitmap level with the exception of some of the mountain lines. Mountains were edited, but many of the thicker lines and were allowed to stay, hence giving the impression of multiple saves. Since mountains are gray and have shadows this was not considered an issue, and it does not distract from either the detail or ambience of the regional maps. All roads, cities, dungeons, temples, rivers, waterfalls, and labeling text, does printout neatly and clearly. This regional map does look very nice, and is very functionally, at least according to the two dozen players who use it in my games. Enough said.